Discover what to do in Gosaldo in Province of Belluno: the Madonna Addolorata festival, Casera Cavallera, California di Gosaldo. Want to know more? First of all…
Where is Gosaldo?
The municipality of Gosaldo borders to the north with Voltago Agordino, to the north west with Taibon Agordino, to the south with Cesiomaggiore, to the east with Rivamonte Agordino, Sedico and Sospirolo, and to the west with Primiero San Martino di Castrozza and Sagron Mis.
The Madonna Addolorata festival
September 15 is the day dedicated to devotion to the Sorrowful Virgin. In the municipality of Gosaldo, this celebration also takes place in the days before and after this date. The 2024 edition of the Madonna Addolorata festival took place on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 September.
As every year, the festival combines the solemnity of Holy Mass and the Procession with the carefree, cheerful atmosphere of a festival from days gone by, featuring orchestral music, local food and wine specialties, dance evenings, briscola tournaments, as well as activities and entertainment for children.
If you are wondering what to do in Gosaldo, the Madonna Addolorata festival is an unmissable opportunity to spend the warm season in the setting of an ancient village nestled between the Conca Agordina and the Val del Mis, overlooked to the west by the spectacular snow-capped peaks of Croda Granda delle Pale di San Martino, and to the east by the great wooded mass of Monte Brandol, Piz de Mez and Piz di Sagron.
For more information about this traditional event, you can visit the Pro Loco Gosaldo Facebook page.
Itinerary in Gosaldo. From malga Cavallera to Casera da Camp
Starting from Piazza S. Giacomo, leave the main entrance of the parish church of Gosaldo on your right and walk alongside the soaring bell tower incorporated into the façade of the old church of San Giacomo, a thousand-year-old place of worship built in Romanesque Gothic style. Take provincial road 347 for 3.2 km in a south west direction, passing through the settlements of Masoch and Pongan, which rose at the foot of a lush wooded hill.
After passing Bar Dal Vecia Di Masoch Morena, at Via Sarasin 11 (località Domadore) take Via Faustin on your right and continue for about 1.5 km until you reach a clearing at the edge of the woods where you can park (46.217563020000945, 11.929529593747565).
The start of the forest road is near a stone channel from which a clear, bubbling little waterfall flows. The forest road, concreted in the steepest sections, winds through the dense vegetation of a woodland of broadleaf trees and conifers, offering breathtaking panoramic views of Croda Granda.
Malga Cavallera
The trail leads to the hut of Malga Cavallera (1680 m). One of the most fascinating and photogenic stops on the excursion, the hut blends harmoniously into the south-east slope of the Pale di San Martino on the edge of the Belluno Dolomites National Park, included on the World Heritage List on 26 June 2009.
Bivacco Menegazzi
Reachable in about fifteen minutes from the bright malga Cavallera, the next stop on the itinerary is Bivacco Menegazzi. Nestled in the lovely Pian Lonch area at 1737 m a.s.l., the shelter offers a spectacular landscape view of the steep mountain slopes, the crags and the passes rising like imposing towers crowning the splendid malga shining in the sun.
Casera da Camp
The route runs along the edges of the steep rocky slopes that mark the valley crossed by a crystal-clear stream. Located at the foot of Croda Granda at 1750 m a.s.l., the alpine hut is surrounded by four hundred hectares of pasture, and its privileged position makes it an unmissable destination for anyone wondering what to do in Gosaldo and wanting to admire the Pale di San Martino and the peaks of the Conca Agordina.
California di Gosaldo
The history of the abandoned village, today reduced to a heap of ruins and rubble immersed in the undergrowth, is linked to mercury mining in the area between Agordo and Fiera di Primiero.
Not far from the built-up area of Pattine, a miners’ village had been founded whose social heart was the Albergo California, whose name, according to tradition, comes from the fact that the owner of the establishment had lived in the state of the same name on the west coast of the United States of America.
Built near the confluence of the Mis and Gosalda streams, the inn had been rebuilt after a flood that devastated the area in the second half of the 19th century, a terrible event that foreshadowed the even more catastrophic flood that would sweep away the entire town on 4 November 1966.
